Pick up any modern book on witchcraft and they’re crammed full with charms and spells to find love, money or a job. Okay… you’ve done the business and met some divine bloke/bird down at the wine bar; Great-Aunt Bessie’s died and left you a tidy sum, and an unexpected career move has you working six months of the year in the Bahamas… so now what?

Should we have to resort to magic to continually sort out our love life, finances and career prospects? And if the magic works for us, who’s to say that it might be robbing someone else of their partner, inheritance or promotion. Magic is, and always has been, a double-edged sword, so we must be doubly careful how we wield it.

Let’s start with that old magical chestnut – the luv spell! If it goes against someone’s natural inclinations or instincts, or if the victim belongs to someone else, then it’s black magic, however you want to glitz it up in your own mind. If you’re looking for Prince(ss) Charming and expect magical impulses to deliver them to your door gift wrapped and eager, I’d have to say get off your backside and get out more! And if you’re spell-casting to make yourself more attractive to the opposite sex, try checking yourself out in the mirror before going any further.

If, on the other hand, you’re sending out a call on the astral and you’re convinced that you’re doing everything in your power to be in the right place at the right time, do be careful what you ask for – or you might just get it! In magical working the wording must be precise or there could be some nasty shocks along the way, so take your time in drawing up a list of attributes you’d like to find in a new partner. An acquaintance generated some pretty heavy artillery in attracting her new mate, who on the surface was everything she’d asked for. Except that three months after the wedding she discovered the hard way that he’d got a violent side to his nature… she’d forgotten to add kindness to her list!

In the current ‘consumer credit crisis’ everyone is feeling the pinch, so you might be a long time waiting for a windfall, even with a bit of magical assistance thrown in. Rather than a “Gissus the money” type of spell-casting, go for a divinatory or meditational result. Another acquaintance used this method and within days spotted a feature in a national newspaper that gave her all the information she needed to sort out her financial problems. With advice and support from an outside agency she was able to clear her debts within six months, but if she’d relied solely on a ‘money spell’ and waited for the cash to miraculously appear in her bank account, the problem would have escalated totally out of control.

Charms and Spells are influenced by the amount of effort put into them, but if you’re content to just fool about with a colored candle and ‘money drawing’ anointing oil on a Thursday evening, the desired results might be a long time in the coming. Use magical knowledge to open the right channels in your mind, and be receptive to any information, ideas or advice that comes to your attention. Magic works in mysterious ways. Likewise in the career stakes, do be careful what you ask for and how you ask for it. Like the witchlet who went into a spell-casting saying she wanted to work with dogs or horses … and found herself working for the local bookmaker!

Spellcasting is a very exact science and should not be undertaken in a spirit of levity, despite what the books offering ‘spells and rituals to attract all the good things in life’ may tell you. It ain’t that easy.